Growing up you hear a lot of sayings that make very little sense. One saying that did not make sense to me until recently was the one about life is a journey not a destination. This may sound like an obvious one, for me it wasn’t. I am very focussed on goals and getting there. The point I missed is the destination in life is not the achievements in 5, 10 or 50 years away, it is death. As morbid and me as that sounds it is true. That said it is those events which make the journey memorable. This is why interviewers always ask people about how they got to where thy are today.
As 2009 is coming to an end it has made me think back over the year that was. Over this year I have ran a half marathon, full marathon, volunteered, joined Rotary, given several talks, organised an Ignite night and celebrated with friends and family amazing events such as the announcement of Nat’s new niece.
None of these were any of the ultimate goals that I have set for myself and took time away from those goals. Yet to miss out on these events to get the destinations / pit stops along the way would be a big lost.
Knowing the end isn’t all that bad. A weird analogy is the TV show “How I Meet Your Mother”. I know how the series end as I have read the synopsis on Wikipedia. The end (destination) is not that exciting. It is the 5 seasons of the journey which makes the show enjoyable. The journey of how Ted finally meets the mother of his children makes you fall in love with the show, the triumphs, the lows, the times where you cringe, and most more importantly the fact the show celebrates those smaller moments in life which just make up the journey. Life is very much about every moment.
I recently listened to a talk by Steve Jobs who asks himself every morning if he would be happy to die doing what he is doing that day and if the answer is no for several days in a row he knows that there is a problem. I thought that this was an interesting concept. How would taking on this approach change things? Would I be quickly unemployed or rising to be a superstar?
Realising that death is the destination I vowed to make sure that each day was a day in which to enjoy the moments weather good or bad.
So I guess the important thing to remember is that while the final destitution is death, it is the journey, the pit stops, the detours, roadworks and scenic drives which makes getting there all that much more memorable.